China power fee hike to raise metals costs

HONG KONG, June 20 (Reuters) - China's power fee hike will increase costs at electricity-hungry aluminium smelters and have a smaller impact on copper and zinc smelters, smelter officials and analysts said on Friday.

Rising costs would trim profits at the smelters but are not seen forcing them to cut production this year.

"The impact will be mainly on aluminium. For producers of other metals, it will not have a big impact," Heng Kun, chief analyst at Essence Securities in Beijing, said.

China is the world's top aluminium and zinc producer and a major copper producer. Beijing will raise average electricity tariffs by 0.025 yuan a kilowatt per hour (kwh) or about 4.7 percent, from July 1, its first broad increase in years primarily affecting industrial and commercial users, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top planning body, said on its website. (www.ndrc.gov.cn)

In early June, aluminium smelters said they had expected power fees to rise in the second half, which has supported global aluminium prices.

A source at a power investment group said the state planner had proposed a hike of 0.03-0.05 yuan and the smaller actual rise might leave a room for another increase.

The latest power hike will increase production costs of primary aluminium at Aluminum Corp of China Ltd (Chalco) (2600.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (601600.SS: Quote, Profile, Research) by 300 yuan per tonne, investor relations manager Zhang Qing told Reuters.

Chalco, the country's top aluminium producer, plans to produce 3.5 million tonnes of primary aluminium this year, she said.

This would raise Chalco's costs by 525 million yuan ($76.3 million) in the second half of the year.

Some 15,000 kwh are used to produce one tonne of aluminium in China.

"Aluminium smelters are unlikely to cut production on the hike. They are still making profits," Heng said.

Heng estimated cash production costs at smelters that did not have power plants would be below 17,500 yuan per tonne versus spot prices of 18,700 yuan traded in eastern China on Friday.

The hike may not boost Chinese prices in the near term due to expanded output and weak consumption growth, Heng said.

"It will not affect us," a trade manager at one large aluminium smelter equipped with power plants in Henan said.

The manager said the hike might encourage power plants that had stopped production due to high coal prices and fixed power fees to resume generation, which could ease power shortages in the summer and keep aluminium production strong this year.

Jiangxi Copper (0358.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) (600362.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), the country's top copper producer, see the hike adding "a few ten million yuan" in costs in the second half, executive director Wang Chiwei said.

"It will certainly have a impact. But our electricity consumption is not very big," Wang said.

The firm will produce around 700,000 tonnes of refined copper this year, and Wang said copper smelters in China were unlikely to scale down production on the utility hike because they would remain profitable.

Zhuzhou Smelter (600961.SS: Quote, Profile, Research), a subsidiary of Hunan Nonferrous (2626.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and the top zinc producer in China, expects the hike to cost more than 20 million yuan in the second half, board secretary Liu Weiqing said.

He added the firm would maintain its production target of 100,000 tonnes of refined lead and more than 400,000 tonnes of refined zinc this year.

($1=6.8798 yuan)

Copyright and Exemption Declaration :¢ÙAll articles, pictures and videos that are marked with "China Aluminum Network" on this website are copyright and belong to China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn). When transshipment, any media, website or individual must list the source from "China Aluminium Network (www.alu.com.cn)". We seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÚArticles that marked as copy from others are for transferring more information to readers, do not represent or endorse their opinions or accuracy and reliability. When other media, website or individuals copy from our website, must keep the source. Anyone that changes the articles' sources will hold the responsibilities for copyright and law problems. We also seek legal actions against anyone that disobey this. ¢ÛIf any articles copied by our website concern the copyright and other problems, please contact us within one week.